


A Slightly Different Disaster

by Drag0nst0rm



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, It's just not quite good enough, Temporary Character Death, The Valar, The Valar are trying their best, bullet point fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-18 08:24:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16991448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drag0nst0rm/pseuds/Drag0nst0rm
Summary: Orome doesn't find the elves until later. Consequently, Finwe's family is a slightly different kind of disaster.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own the Silmarillion.

\- It is only chance that lets Orome find the elves, and chance can fall in many different directions. He considers riding in the direction of a lake he visited once, many years before, but his quarry leads him elsewhere, and so the elves live on, unfound.

\- Feanor is born to Miriel, and she dies not long after. Miriel is the first to die in childbirth, but death itself is not uncommon at Cuivienien. Grief is well known to the elves, and Feanor is not the only one without a mother. He doesn’t quite realize it, but this helps.

\- No one knows what happens to elves when they die. Finwe hopes Miriel is safe. That she is happy. He knows that he won’t find out until something befalls him in his turn.

\- He is still the first to remarry. Elves do not do so lightly. Some whisper that it is a sign that he did not truly love his wife. Others think that perhaps he only wants a helpmate, not love, for raising a brilliant son is hard enough without also bearing the burdens of being chief. Both groups are wrong.

\- Feanor is the only one who worries about how it will affect Miriel, and that is because he is a child, and he believes the stories his father tells him of his mother watching over him. He does not think she would like to see his father moving on.

\- But Finwe remarries anyway. He would like to take more time, to try to talk Feanor around, but even for immortals, life seems perilous. Who knows when the hunter might snatch Indis away? Who knows if the next winter will be too harsh and will carry them all away? 

\- He loves Indis, and if something does happen to him, there will be someone to care for Feanor. That consideration weighs just as heavily.

\- The hunter claims more and more of their people, and the sense of no time weighs ever heavier. They don’t wait as long as they might have to bear a child.

\- It’s a girl, her name is Findis, and Feanor hates her. He hates the idea that he might be replaced, he hates this proof of his father’s remarriage, and he also hates the way she cries through the night.

\- He does not get the opportunity to hate her for long.

\- Findis is small, and she does not grow much. There is so little food that year, and it is so cold. Everyone goes hungry. Feanor works instead of complaining, brilliant mind picking away at the problem and finding little ways to stretch things, to find more, even as young as he is. The baby does nothing but cry it seems, but then she stops doing that, and then she stops doing anything at all.

\- Feanor had, in his heart, wished her gone, but he hadn’t wanted this, he hadn’t wanted her to _die,_ and this is all his fault, if he had tried harder, he could have found a way to save her -

\- It is not his fault, of course. Finwe tries to tell him this. Feanor has not yet reached his adolescence, it is certainly not his fault that he could not find enough food to save his sister. Finwe blames himself for that, just as he blames himself for how pitifully easy it is to pick Feanor up, and for how close Feanor’s bones are to his skin. Finwe dedicates himself to bringing what remains of his family and his people through the rest of that terrible year and blames no one but himself.

\- Feanor thinks his father is very kind and blames himself anyway.

\- He has reached adolescence and is learning from Mahtan, who has started experimenting with metals to see if they can make better weapons out of them than with wood and stone, when Finwe and Indis try again.

\- It is a good year, a warm year, and Feanor starts immediately searching for foods he can safely stockpile anyway. He devotes himself to loving the baby fiercely, as soon as he knows his sibling is coming, because he hated Findis, and Findis died, and that must never happen again. He is ambivalent towards Indis, but he is determined to love her child.

\- Nolofinwe is born. Feanor questions the midwife anxiously to make sure that he is not too small.

\- Feanor continues to be brilliant, continues to make things to lighten the load of daily work, to make them safer, to increase what food they can have. He hears Rumil arguing in favor of a writing system and falls in love with the idea. He begins to notice just how interesting Nerdanel is.

\- He does as much of this as possible while carrying around Nolofinwe. If his brother is with him, he is safe; he is not wandering into the woods to be taken by the hunter, he is not wailing for food that no one can bring, he is not too cold. Feanor makes sure of it.

\- Indis is slightly concerned. Finwe thinks it wonderful how close his two sons have become.

\- Nolofinwe, for his part, thinks his brother can do anything. He’s brilliant, everyone says so, and he always lets Nolofinwe have the last of whatever Father has cooked, and he almost never tells Nolofinwe to go away like most of his friends’ brothers tell them to, and he always apologizes wonderfully when he does. Sometimes he gets distracted by things, but that’s alright. Nolofinwe’s pretty sure that’s just a side effect of being brilliant, and it’s a way that he can be the helpful one for once. He fetches his brother things and reminds him when he has somewhere else to be, and he reassures Feanor whenever he grows discouraged. 

\- Feanor is a young man, just past his majority, and Nolofinwe is in his adolescence, when Orome finally comes and offers to take the elves to Valinor. They are both terrified when they watch their father and Ingwe and Olwe go.

\- And this means Feanor’s in charge.

\- Indis helps, of course, but she and Feanor are cautious around each other. Nolofinwe does his best to help too. He’s pretty sure Feanor can best help their people by all those things he does while he’s off being brilliant, so he does his best to take on as many of the minor duties as he can so Feanor has more time to spend in the forge making better weapons for them to hunt with based on what they glimpsed in Orome’s possession. Anything he can’t handle, he makes sure Feanor remembers to do. It’s a good system; all the work gets done, the people are happy, and the new weapons are much better and bring down more prey and monsters both. This, Nolofinwe thinks, will be his role someday, helping Feanor with all the little things so he can be brilliant and be chief in the far, far distant day that happens.

\- Or possibly he could be chief, so that Feanor has even more time to be brilliant?

\- But that thought feels wrong, like stealing something of Feanor’s, and he knows all about the wrong thoughts that sometimes drift on the wind from the hunter, so he shakes his head briskly. He will help Feanor, as Feanor has always helped him.

\- Then Finwe returns and announces they are going to Aman where there will be no hunter, and there will be beautiful light, and their dead will join them again.

\- “I’ll get to meet Findis,” Nolofinwe says, happy at the thought.

\- Feanor and Indis are not quite so uncomplicatedly happy. 

\- “Mother?” Feanor croaks, and he shoots a look at Nolofinwe’s mother, so it takes his younger brother a moment to realize what’s going on.

\- “If Miriel walks among us again … “ Indis says, and she is trying not to be selfish about this, but she can’t stop the way the thought hurts. Not because she begrudges Miriel her happiness, but because it must necessarily rip apart her own.

\- “I think,” Finwe says, feeling far more uncertain than he sounds, “that we should wait and discuss the matter all three of us together. None of us foresaw this,” and he sounds almost pleading.

\- “Of course,” Indis says, and that should be the end of it, but Nolofinwe can’t help feeling that something is very, very wrong.

\- But Feanor is still his brother, of course, and they look after each other all the way through the long Great Journey, even if Feanor wants to spend more time away from him now than he once did. This, Nolowfinwe tells himself firmly, is because his brother is courting Nerdanel, and not because of the strangeness that seeps into their family whenever he’s not looking. And Feanor still loves him, of course he does. Nolofinwe has proof of this. Feanor saves his life at least once on their journey, and he still tells him he loves him, and he still laughs with him sometimes. He is only worried and that is alright because Nolofinwe is too.

\- It doesn’t help when Indis becomes pregnant again. At first, Nolofinwe is excited to be a big brother like Feanor is, but then he sees the guilty looks his parents shoot each other whenever the other is looking away, and he sees the fury in Feanor’s face - and, he slowly realizes, the fear. Feanor fears something has been decided by this. Nolofinwe isn’t sure if he’s right.

\- He’s not. Indis is desperate for some sort of reassurance, and Finwe isn’t sure what’s going to happen but knows that even the doubt is hurting Indis terribly, and he never meant for this to happen, never dreamed it could, so he gives in. 

\- It’s a girl. Her name is Irime. Feanor gathers food again, but he does so grimly. Her parents both love her, but they can’t look at her without feeling guilt. Nolofinwe decides he will take care of her like Feanor does him and doesn’t realize that Feanor fears that as a sibling he is being replaced.

\- They reach Aman at last. The moment their city is built and their people are safe and Finwe is sure he is not neglecting his people, he goes to enquire of Mandos of his daughter and wife.

\- The Valar are not omniscient. They had known all the facts separately, but they had not put them together.

\- Two wives. Two children from two wives. Such a thing is surely a result of Arda Marred. Mandos calls together his brethren to debate this matter.

\- In the end, there can be only one conclusion. One of the marriages, and thus one of the marriages’ children, is marred. Either the first, because the cost of Feanor’s birth was Miriel’s life, or the second, because it would never have existed had the first endured. Regardless, Finwe cannot have two living wives.

\- Finwe volunteers to ender Mandos’s Halls if it means the rest of his family can return. This, the Valar concede, would solve one problem, but with him gone, one of his children would have to reign, and obviously, it cannot be the marred one, so it has to be determined which son the marred one is.

\- Miriel, when asked her opinion, is tired and disgusted. She has been working for Vaire for years, but she cannot abide to continue doing so now, and she does not feel able to return to full life. She’ll return to the Halls of Mandos. Problem solved.

\- The immediate problem is, the Valar agree, but since they’re all gathered together anyway, they might as well decide the issue of the heir. And besides, they need to know whether or not they should release Findis. If she is marred, after all, it might not be advisable.

\- Parents are not supposed to have favorites. Finwe would maintain that he does not, but it isn’t true. He loves Feanor more than anyone or anything else in all of Arda.

\- This does not mean that Finwe does not love his other children. He loves Nolofinwe. He loves the newly born Irime, who does not deserve to grow up labelled as marred. He loves Findis, and he cannot bear to condemn her to death again.

\- And although he is sure Feanor can rule and rule capably, he is equally sure he is happier in the forge while Nolofinwe has been flourishing in Tirion’s ever growing web of politics.

\- When he thinks of Feanor for longer than a moment, he almost announces that he has changed his mind and that while his people may do as they wish, he and his family are going back to Cuivienien.

\- But to do so means leaving Findis behind.

\- He must betray at least one of his children, and so in absence of other hope, he despairs and chooses on numbers alone. 

\- He argues that his marriage to Indis is not marred. He cannot bring himself to argue the necessary corollary.

\- Feanor loves his siblings, Finwe thinks desperately. Maybe he can explain. Maybe he can salvage this somehow.

\- Miriel is watching him with eyes that are more tired than anything else. Indis slumps a little in relief. Nolofinwe is caught in a confused tangle of emotions, and Irime, not knowing what is going on but catching the atmosphere, starts to cry.

\- Feanor stands frozen and remains so until the Valar decide that they agree with Finwe’s opinion.

\- Then he storms out.

\- Findis is returned to them, still just as small as when she left them, but here in Aman, that matters not. She’ll grow.

\- Finwe spends every moment he can spare searching for Feanor, and he has others searching every moment he can’t. Eventually, they find him staying with Nerdanel and her father.

\- They have messages from the king, desperate messages that promise anything if Feanor will only come home.

\- Feanor now knows that anything has a limit.

\- But Nerdanel convinces him to at least speak to his father even though she’s quietly just as furious and hurt on his behalf as he is for himself and his mother, and he desperately wants to see Findis, and he has heard the muttering among some of the Noldor. There are some - the craftsmen, those who still don’t trust the Valar, those who dislike the Vanyar in general or Indis in particular - who disapprove of the decision. Who are growing in discontent. Feanor is - despite what his father seems to think, he thinks angrily - aware of political implications, and he knows that refusing to go will only help those mutters grow.

\- So he goes. Everyone in the family old enough to know what’s going on is relieved. There’s a chance, just a chance, that this can work.

\- The problem, quite unintentionally, is the steward.

\- There’s no protocol for this situation. None. He’s making it up as he goes along, so he takes refuge in what he knows - the crown prince sits here, sleeps here, stands there, and the new crown prince is, best he understands it, Nolofinwe - and he scrambles to make other arrangements for the former crown prince. He’s not at all sure what to do about that. The position implies disfavor, but the king certainly isn’t acting like that’s the case, so … ? Well, he’ll do his best.

\- Unfortunately, his best rather underlines the worst of Feanor’s insecurities. Nolofinwe has replaced him. He has been judged less worthy, less important, and has no place here in this paradise his father has found.

\- He says as much, furiously, in the banquet hall looking at the seat beside his father that Nolofinwe has just been ushered to. He doesn’t notice Nolofinwe’s own alarm.

\- Instead, he just stalks out.

\- His mother has been locked in the Halls forever, and he resolutely refuses to think about how she hadn’t seemed to consider him enough to return for. His father has chosen his new family over him, has renounced him as marred - fine. Maybe he is marred. He doesn’t think people are supposed to feel the way he feels right now, but he’ll show them, he’ll do something wonderful, create something more incredible than anything that’s ever been seen before, and he’ll prove he is worthy to be his father’s son. 

\- No one manages to catch him before he leaves. Feanor doesn’t answer any personal letters sent to him and replies to official ones with all the perfect, unforgiving civility of a subject to his king and prince.

\- Nolofinwe doesn’t know what his parents were thinking when they decide to have Arafinwe. He does know that that his baby brother will have to grow up without his elder one, and he doesn’t know how to explain that. He is quite, quite sure that the better brother is gone, and that he doesn’t have a prayer of being enough to fill his shoes. He wishes he could do something, something big and grand for Feanor to show that he loves his brother far more than he cares for stupid titles and judgements of the Valar, but there is nothing, nothing, nothing.

\- Finwe thinks he would declare war on the Halls of Mandos themselves if the action would win him back his son.


	2. Chapter 2

\- Feanor marries Nerdanel. He refuses to go to Aule to learn, but Mahtan has, and Mahtan teaches him in turn. Feanor and Nerdanel’s work is highly sought after, and they’re able to support themselves without touching a penny of Finwe’s money.

\- Nerdanel gives birth to a son. His mother-name means beautiful. His father-name means treasured one.

\- It does not include a “finwe.”

\- Feanor does not, technically, invite Finwe to the naming ceremony. He just sends him a polite, formal letter informing him of it, and leaves just enough time that Finwe could feasibly get there.

\- Finwe comes. He brings an extravagant gift for his first grandson. If they were better at communicating, this might be the part where things turned around, but they’re not. All that happens is the start of a pattern. Feanor and Nerdanel have a child. Feanor names them something like treasured one, precious one, beloved one. Finwe is invited at the last minute, and he always drops everything to come, always bearing gifts. 

\- It is the only time he sees his son. It is the only time he sees his grandchildren. He doesn’t know what he’ll do when Feanor and Nerdanel decide they’ve had enough.

\- It is the only time Feanor sees his father. He doesn’t know what he’ll do he and Nerdanel stop.

\- Nerdanel wants lots of children.

\- The problem with the pattern is that the longer it goes, the harder it is to break out of, because the more things grow between them. For everyone who supports Feanor, there’s someone else who thinks the Valar must be right and says so. Worse, there are those who say it to his children, and say that they must be marred too.

\- Tyelkormo loves the hunt. He wants to learn under Orome. Feanor has a special hatred for Orome, since if it wasn’t for him they would all still be at Cuivienien, where they’d been happy (… mostly), but he isn’t about to forbid something his son wants so badly.

\- Orome is happy to have him. Not everyone who hunts with him is so kind. Some of the Maiar are not at all convinced he should be there.

\- Tyelkormo doesn’t care what they say about him, but they go too far when they talk about his father.

\- Tyelkormo comes home with bleeding knuckles, the ability to talk to animals, a split lip, and a refusal to explain what happened.

\- He also has a dog that Feanor suspects is Maia, but the dog is also refusing to talk, and it growls at anyone who insults Tyelkormo, so Feanor doesn’t protest the dog and goes to work out his ever growing ball of rage in the forge.

\- Makalaure, for his part, is a prodigious singer, so eventually he’s allowed to go to Alqualonde to learn more. It’s there that he meets Arafinwe for the first time.

\- Makalaure is very polite and very correct, and Arafinwe supposes that’s only natural, seeing as they’ve never met before, but he can’t help feeling a little like he’s just been obscurely insulted. He writes Nolofinwe.

\- Nolofinwe comes at once and listens to the first demonstration he can. He goes up to his nephew afterward and praises him extensively.

\- Makalaure knows the following things about his uncle: He knows that his father speaks of him sometimes, sometimes wistfully, sometimes with betrayal, sometimes sounding heartbroken. He knows this is one of the people his father was rejected for. And he knows his own experiences.

\- Some of the people in Alqualonde haven’t cared who he is. Some have been enthusiastically on his side.

\- But there have also been two teachers who refused to teach him and a group of other students who he’s dueled in song, twice, because of who his father is.

\- Makalaure bows the precise perfect amount and greets Crown Prince Nolofinwe.

\- “I think the word you’re looking for is ‘uncle,’” Nolofinwe says dryly, but it’s been a bad week, so Makalaure’s smile is vicious with its brittleness when he says, “I would hardly presume.”

\- Nolofinwe sticks around long enough to get a hint of some of what his nephew’s facing, and he gets it then. He just doesn’t know what to do about it.

\- He writes to Finwe and tells him that he should invite Makalaure to play for him sometime soon. Finwe is only too happy to oblige.

\- Meanwhile, there is the problem of Maitimo.

\- Except no one phrases it like that, because then Feanor will knock their teeth in. His children are not problems. They are never problems. They _have_ problems, sometimes, and they occasionally do something that _creates_ a problem, but there is nothing in them that is inherently a problem.

\- And the problem here shouldn’t really be a problem at all. There is no problem with being witty and handsome, with having a good head for diplomacy and a silver tongue, for making a habit of smoothing disputes over and making friends.

\- Except, of course, when the person should have been a prince, and they’re upsetting a delicate political balance by visibly being someone who would have been very good at it.

\- Feanor has said before, grudgingly, that if he had ever been named king, he probably would have abdicated in favor of Nolofinwe. He says this partially because it hurts less to have a thing taken if you were willing to give it up, partially because it helps to calm the rising tensions that Feanor does not wholly want and certainly does not want to deal with, and partially because it’s true.

\- Now, though, people are pointing out that he could have also abdicated in favor of Maitimo.

\- And while Feanor will, when pressed or when in a nostalgic mood, say that Nolofinwe is better than him at some court thing or other, he will never, ever say that one of his children is lesser than anyone, particularly someone related to Indis.

\- So when someone compares Maitimo favorably to Nolofinwe or Fingon, he agrees. 

\- It doesn’t help that Feanor’s frustration is growing at the fact that Maitimo is stifled liked this. He’s meant for court life, not for traveling all over Aman with his craftsman father, Feanor’s sure of that.

\- Maitimo insists he’s fine. Really. He’ll find a craft he’s passionate about and settle down, and until then, he can smooth the ruffled feathers within their little family and those caused by their presence.

\- Feanor doesn’t buy this.

\- So he grits his teeth and writes to his father to see if there’s any way Maitimo could make himself useful at court.

\- Logically, this might be a bad idea. Catapulting Feanor’s oldest son further into the public eye isn’t going to quiet comparisons between him and Prince Fingon. On the other hand, this concession might quiet some of the less contented elements. On yet another hand, no one really wants to debate the issue in front of Finwe. To the king, the issue is simple: his son wants something from him enough that he is willing to ask for it, and what his son wants will involve Finwe potentially seeing Maitimo on a daily basis. He hasn’t seen his oldest grandson since Carnistir was born. Of course he can find something for Maitimo to do. In fact, he knows the perfect thing. There are councils in the court to represent the interests of the nobles, the craftsmen, and the farmers. Maitimo is very familiar with the concerns of the second, and there’s a minor position opening up there; Maitimo can ease into things, and Finwe is sure he’ll rise quickly.

= So Maitimo goes.

\- In some ways, this helps. Finwe is now in regular contact with Maitimo and semi-regular contact with Makalaure, and through them he gets more family news. Their cousins are slowly getting to know them, and Aredhel runs into Tyelkormo when she’s out hunting and the two of them fall into friendship quickly. Feanor starts writing to his father more so he can be sure Maitimo isn’t hiding anything and is actually alright. 

\- The family is closer to healing than it’s ever been. Nerdanel bears another son, and his father-name is Curufinwe. After his father, of course, but it’s the first nod to Finwe that’s appeared in the names.

\- But not all the problems are gone. Maitimo is indeed rising quickly, almost entirely on his own merit, and he gets a lot of approving remarks aimed at him, most of which he tries to deflect modestly. Fingon, who has, against all odds, managed to befriend him, remarks at one point that all of this seems to come far more naturally to Maitimo than it does to him, and it is the only time he does not see his cousin take a compliment well. He turns white and hisses for Fingon to be quiet, because some lessons Maitimo has taught himself and taught himself harshly, and that’s that he can never, ever allow himself to let a comment like that pass. 

\- Fingon keeps comments like that to himself. He’s still pretty sure they’re true.

\- So not all the discontent is stamped out - certainly not all that’s aimed at the Valar - and by this time, there’s also the problem of the other side of the family. Feanor isn’t the only one nursing a grudge by now. Arafinwe’s put out with him for hurting Nolo, Irime and Findis blame him for the friction in their parents’ marriage, Nolofinwe is getting frustrated that Feanor won’t at least talk to him, and Indis feels the need, more than once, to point out to Finwe that dropping everything every time he has an opportunity to go see Feanor sometimes means dropping things that are important to his other children. 

\- And of course, there’s something else that’s keeping everything from being laid to rest. Or, rather, _someone_ else.

\- Hello, Melkor.

\- Melkor helps keep the drama going. There’s one point where it nearly boils over and probably would have if not for the birth of the twins. Finwe and Feanor are always closest right after a new grandchild is born, and most have the common decency not to urge revolution on Feanor while he has children in the cradle. For one thing, they have forever. Why not wait until the children are grown and unrest is safer?

= For another, a sleep deprived Feanor is not a Feanor most people are all that eager to approach.

\- And Feanor has been very sleep deprived lately. More than they’d expect even for twins.

\- Finwe doesn’t have a begetting day, he has an awakening day, but the principle’s the same, and there’s a centennial coming up. Naturally, there’ll be a huge celebration, and even more naturally, there will be gifts. 

= For the first time since the Valar’s decision, Feanor’s planning to go. Naturally, he plans to have the inarguably greatest gift, a gift so grand no one will be able to claim he is unworthy.

\- Feanor doesn’t quite realize that he’s going to outshine everyone else’s gift just by showing up.

\- Maitimo recruits Fingon to help him keep his parents and younger siblings’ arrival secret until the presenting of gifts. 

\- Finwe is overjoyed to see his eldest son. So overjoyed that had it been any other gift being presented, he probably wouldn’t even have noticed it.

\- Feanor presents him with the three just finished Silmarils, set into a beautifully wrought crown.

\- “Are my efforts acceptable?” Feanor asks into the stunned silence.

\- Finwe walks toward him and takes ahold of his arms instead of the gift. “They outshine every other gift I have received,” Finwe says, “save one.”

\- Feanor’s eyes automatically flick towards Nolofinwe. Nolo hasn’t actually presented his gift yet and for his part is very sure that it is indeed going to be outshone. He shakes his head.

\- “You came,” Finwe explains and holds him tight.

\- Finwe’s family starts to knit itself back together in earnest. There’s still division among the Noldor, but frankly, the Noldor are always going to be arguing over something. Things are getting better.

\- There’s a … hiccup … when Yavanna hallows the Silmarils. On the one hand, Feanor feels more vindicated than ever. On the other hand, he really doesn’t approve of the Valar interfering with his work.

\- And on yet another hand, a hand which he would never admit to, he’s not sure what will happen now should he touch one.

\- Nolofinwe and Feanor really start mending their relationship when Nolo convinces him to try and they discover the answer, which is: Nothing. Nothing’s changed.

\- “Not so marred after all,” Feanor says a little smugly to cover his relief.

\- Nolofinwe gives in to the urge to be a little childish and roll his eyes. “Of course you’re not,” he says. “You never were.”

\- Melkor isn’t happy.

\- It’s a number of years later - Curufinwe’s grown up and has a son of his own - when there’s a festival for the Trees. Finwe and most of the family have to be there. Feanor and his sons technically don’t. Finwe makes a point of inviting him, but Feanor is only too happy to avoid the Valar. He stays behind, although Maitimo goes.

\- Ever since the Yavanna incident, Finwe hasn’t worn the Silmarils around the Valar. He leaves the crown behind in Feanor’s care. Feanor decides to take the opportunity to make sure the crown itself is still doing alright. He tells the rest of his family to go ahead and enjoy the smaller festival in the city.

\- Melkor and Ungoliant come to Tirion. Feanor is not about to yield his proof that he is worthy of his place in the family, particularly to a Vala. Feanor fights.

\- And inevitably, Feanor loses.

\- For a moment, there are four lights in the darkness Ungoliant has created.

\- And then Feanor’s fire is stamped out.

\- The Trees are darkened. The Valar convene. They tell Finwe they need the Silmarils his son has given him.

\- Finwe is a king, and a king must do what is best for his people.

\- Finwe is nonetheless not sold on this idea, not least because he suspects that Feanor has poured part of his very spirit into those jewels. He’s not convinced Feanor will survive their breaking.

\- Mandos informs him that point is moot. Finwe’s about to press him on that when the six sons of Feanor not already with Finwe show up, along with their mother and young Tyelperinquar. They break the news.

\- Finwe demands to know when his son will be released. Mandos says it’s impossible without the Silmarils. Feanor poured too much of himself into them.

\- Finwe swears no Oaths. That isn’t the kind of gesture he’s inclined too. He does, however, give a speech passionate enough to rival any Feanor might ever have given.

\- As far as Finwe’s concerned, the Valar have failed him for the last time. He’s going back across the sea, he’s going to fight Melkor, and he’s going to get those Silmaril’s back at which point, Mandos had _better_ give him back his son. His people can follow him if they choose and find themselves a new king if they don’t.

\- All of his living sons and all of his grandchildren follow him. The small contingency of Noldor who don’t remain in Tirion under the regency of Findis.

\- Olwe is sympathetic to his old friend’s plight and concerned by some of the Valar’s actions. He loans the ships. A few of the Teleri even decide to join them.

\- The Noldor leave under a Doom, though a lesser one.

\- And the war for the Silmarils is once again under way.


End file.
